Traditionally, multi-fiber push on (MPO) fiber optic connectors are designed so that guide pins are permanently mounted in a pin clamp within the fiber optic connector. After the fiber optic ferrule has the optical fibers secured therein and the end face is polished, the guide pins (for the male version of MPO connectors) are inserted into the guide pin holes from the back end of the fiber optic ferrule. When assembling a fiber optic connector in this manner, there is little chance for damage to the front end face of the fiber optic ferrule. The MPO style fiber optic connectors are designed to mate to the opposite pin gender: a male connector mates to a female connector. During installation of MPO connectors in the field, there are occasions when there are either 2 male or 2 female connectors in the layout that need to be mated together. Changing the gender of an MPO fiber optic connector in the field is next to impossible, unless the fiber optic connector has removable guide pins. Even then, when attempting to change the gender through the front face of the fiber optic ferrule in the field, such as illustrated in FIG. 1, it is possible to cause damage to the fiber optic ferrule's guide pin holes as the guide pins are either removed or inserted. The geometry of the groove end of the guide pin and the angle of the guide pin relative to the guide pin hole as it is removed from the fiber optic ferrule determine the degree of damage sustained by the front end face of the fiber optic ferrule. If the damage is severe, a lip can be created on the front end face around the perimeter of the guide pin hole. If the lip is large enough to prevent physical contact of the optical fibers in the mating fiber optic connectors, there can be an impact on the performance of the connection. In order to prevent significant damage to the ferrule guide pin holes at the front end face, it is desirable to control the geometry of the groove end of the guide pin and the removal angle. Ideally the guide pins would be removed from and inserted into the fiber optic ferrule perfectly straight i.e., at an angle of 0°. However, in actual use, the guide pins are removed at a slight angle. Using the tooling described in Applicant's copending patent application Ser. No. 15/801,490 entitled “Fiber Optic Guide Pin Changer and Field Tool with Adapter,” the contents of which are incorporated by reference herein, the alignment of the guide pin relative to the guide pin hole is held at an angle less than 10° during insertion and removal of the guide pins through the front face of the fiber optic ferrule.
In order to prevent the guide pins from skiving and damaging the fiber optic ferrule, applicant has changed the proximal end of the guide pins to prevent the fiber optic ferrules from catching the fiber optic ferrules on the front face and in the guide pin holes within a range of insertion/removal angles.